Escaping From This Nightmare
by Entiya
Summary: She wanted to run. Escape. Escape from this nightmare. A certain blonde haired man helped her - even when she was caught in another one. Kushina-fox, Minato-human. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Kushina ran between the trees in the moonlit night. Her small paws ached with every step she took, but she ignored the pain. No matter how badly she wanted to rest, curl up and sleep, she couldn't. She could hear the yells and shouts of her hunters not too far behind her.

"FIND HER! NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, YOU MUST FIND AND CAPTURE HER IMMEDIATELY!" A loud and rough voice yelled, echoing throughout the forest; presumably the leader of her hunters.

_Why_, she thought, _why is this happening to me now?_

She wanted to escape. Escape from her nightmare. She suddenly tripped over a root, painfully falling and scraping her fur. She once again ignored her aching body and started to run again. Anywhere was better than _there_ at the moment. She wished so badly for someone to accept her; someone to _love_ her and care for her, no matter what she was.

She knew that could never happen to her. She was _the_ fox- the one with nine tails. The value of her fur and tails sent lords and bounty hunters setting their sights on her. Her fur wasn't the only thing to be wanted. Within time, her power would grow immensely, driving fear into the very core of each and every person. At the moment, Kushina had yet to have that power; she was still young. However, this didn't stop hunters chasing after her.

_This wasn't supposed to happen. They said I was going to be protected from the bad humans. They said I was going to be okay, even after we hid so many times from the humans. So why is this happening?!_ She thought, whimpering in fear. She could remember the events clearly, burning in her mind.

Kushina was resting with her family, when suddenly she was woken up to the loud voices of humans outside their home. Her family were normal foxes; ones who didn't have nine tails. However, even though they possessed no worth or value compared to her, their lives were taken trying to protect her right in front of her own eyes. Her instincts then kicked in, telling her that those humans were dangerous. Although she didn't want to leave her family members behind, she didn't want their sacrifices to be in vain. Scrambling to her feet, she ran away from her beloved home.

As she was going over the recent events, a sharp pain spread at the base of one of her tails. She looked behind and saw that a kunai had managed to scratch it deeply, blood staining her luscious tail. She whimpered again in pain, but she kept going, willing her body to keep running. The fact that a kunai had managed to hit her meant that the hunters were closer.

Dashing between the trees, her eyes searched frantically for a hiding spot. At that moment, she decided that anywhere would be good, as long as it hid her from her hunters. She was relieved as she saw a small cave in view. She started running towards it, when suddenly another sharp pain hit her; this time, at her leg. This made her stop running and fall painfully yet again. She tried to get up, but without success. Her leg was bleeding, and from the look of it, the wound seemed to be deep. Then, she heard their footsteps rapidly coming towards her by the second. Kushina desperately tried to crawl towards the cave, but it was too late.

A hand grabbed her by the tail and brought her up harshly. She couldn't see the human very well because her vision was blurring – she had lost too much blood. Her body ached, and all she wanted right now was to go to sleep. No one would come save her, anyway. But she couldn't get captured. Not here, not now. She wouldn't let her family's sacrifice be in vain. Forcing herself to stay conscious, she turned and bit the human's hand, hard enough for him to let go.

She fell to the ground with a harsh _thud,_ but she got up and dashed towards the small cave. It was big enough for her to move around comfortably, but small enough so that humans couldn't fit in. She collapsed on the floor of the cave, deciding it was safe enough for now. Wanting nothing more than to sleep, that's exactly what she did. However, before her eyes closed shut, she saw something yellow flash at the front of the cave.

* * *

Kushina felt warm and comfortable. Upon instinct, she immediately snuggled closer to the source of warmth. Suddenly realizing that something was wrong, she snapped her eyes open. She let her eyes adjust to the light before focusing on the source of heat.

_Where…am I?_ She thought. She was in a larger cave. Near her, there was a burnt out fire with rocks around it. Kushina didn't recognize her surroundings, but she didn't care about her general location right now. Instead, her eyes widened as she realized where the source of heat was coming from.

She was in the lap of a sleeping human. Upon seeing him, she immediately tried to run away, but failed since her leg was still wounded. She whimpered in pain as she tried to crawl away from him.

This seemed to wake him up. His eyes slowly opened, before widening in shock as he saw Kushina making fruitless attempts to run away. He carefully picked her up and set her on his lap again.

Kushina tensed up and tried to get away from his strong yet gentle grip. Her instincts told her that she could trust him, but she didn't want to trust her instincts right now.

_He's a human! He's going to try and capture me, or even worse, kill me. I have to get away! _Kushina frantically thought, clawing at his legs, even though he didn't seem to mind.

"Please don't run away, you're wounded and injured. We have to get you proper treatment before you can move properly again." The man spoke calmly. Kushina froze, before relaxing slightly. His voice was calm and gentle; her instincts told her again that she could trust him. For now, she decided to follow her instincts.

Upon closer inspection, she noticed that her wounds had been treated and wrapped with bandages. _Did he do this?_ She thought.

Kushina decided to inspect the human. He had blonde, spiky hair, and gentle, blue eyes. He seemed to notice her looking at him because he smiled at her softly. He started to stroke her fur lightly, which Kushina started to like. She made a sound of contentment and closed her eyes.

"Good girl. Now stay still. We're almost at the village. From there, you can get proper treatment for your wounds," The blonde man told her. She didn't really listen to him though, because she was paying attention to his soft strokes to her fur. Feeling satisfied and safe, she went back to sleep again.

* * *

This time, Kushina woke up to voices. Not loud, rough voices like in the forest. These were normal voices, and within them, she recognized the calm and gentle voice of the blonde man who saved her. She slowly opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the bright light. She looked around. She was in a small, white room. Everywhere was white, except for the three humans in it.

She let her eyes focus on them. One of them was the blonde man from earlier, who seemed to notice that she was awake because he smiled at her before talking to an older, long, white-haired man. The third person was a blonde woman with a busty chest, who seemed to be annoyed.

The white-haired man now seemed to notice Kushina was awake. "Oh, you're awake now! That's good. I was worried you were dead because Minato here," he pointed to her blonde savior, "brought you here, unconscious and not moving. Turns out you were just sleeping." He chuckled.

_So his name is Minato….._Kushina thought. She then decided that this Minato person is trustworthy, and the others are not until proven otherwise.

"Well then, we got the nine tails in our hands. Thing is, who's going to raise her? We just can't let her out into the wild. People are trying to capture and kill her," The white haired man scratched his head. "I could try taking care of her. What do you think of that, hm?" He turned towards Kushina and tried picking her up. However, she growled at him and bared her fangs. She wouldn't accept anyone but Minato.

The blonde woman finally spoke. "I don't think she'll trust us that well, Jiraiya. She just got hunted down by people at such a young age," She glared at the white haired man, Jiraiya.

"Well then, why don't you try, Minato?" He gestured towards the said man.

Kushina relaxed. She trusted him. She let him pick her up and hold her in his arms. Upon contact with the warmth, she snuggled deeper into his arms.

The white haired man – Jiraiya - blinked before laughing. "Looks like she won't trust anyone but you. I guess you'll be taking care of her."

Minato smiled. "I would love to." He started stroking her fur again. Kushina made a sound of contentment, obviously liking the soft strokes to her fur. If he was the one taking care of her, she wouldn't mind.

She trusted him. For once, she trusted a human, and for once, a human accepted her with love and care. She snuggled deeper into his arms, closing her eyes.

_Thank you Minato, for letting me escape this nightmare._


	2. Chapter 2

Because of a request, I decided to continue this story. Also, thanks to Rukure for helping me with this story! By the way, in case if anyone's wondering, the previous chapter all happened on the same day/night.

* * *

The next time Kushina woke up, she was in an unknown room, and it appeared that she had slept through the night. The sun was already pretty high in the sky, its rays going through the window. Upon realizing this, Kushina tensed up and immediately started to inspect her surroundings until she remembered the previous day's events.

She looked back at her bandaged leg and started to move it slowly. It didn't hurt as much anymore. Due to her being the nine tails, she healed faster than normal. However, since she didn't completely reach adulthood, her healing rate wasn't as fast as when she would be an adult. This meant that she still had to limp a little if she were to walk or run.

Kushina stood up and was about to jump off a bed until she saw a note on the desk next to it. She walked to the desk and jumped over to read the note.

_Going out to get food for you. With your intelligence, I wouldn't be surprised if you could read this._

_-Minato_

She nodded slightly to herself, understanding it perfectly. Kushina then jumped off the bed, wincing a little bit as she landed on her wounded leg. She ignored it though, and proceeded to look around Minato's house. She didn't want to lay around all day, after all. Besides, she thought that if Minato was going to take care of her from now on, she better get used to his house after all.

The living room was a bit small, but that was normal for someone living alone (she didn't find anything that implied someone else lived here). The walls were beige in color, with nothing but a few pictures here and there. A light blue couch in front of a shelf with a few books faced a small drawer and trash can, which were next to the wooden front door. Nothing seemed to interest Kushina here so she moved onto the kitchen.

The kitchen wasn't too impressive either. Its white-tiled walls, wooden cabinets, and silver counters were sort of plain, but Kushina wasn't too focused on that. Instead, she looked at the refrigerator. She was getting hungry, and Minato wasn't back yet, and there was a refrigerator here, probably full of food – she could smell a tiny bit of it. This could only mean one thing: get the food from the refrigerator.

Kushina leapt onto the counter next to the refrigerator, trying to figure out how to open it. Her paws surely weren't made for human-made objects. She tried with all her might to try and push it open from the side, but it didn't even move an inch! She looked at her tails. Kushina had _nine_ tails. And so, she tried using all nine of her tails to push it open. However, this didn't work either, and she even fell off the counter because she couldn't balance herself!

Kushina glared at the refrigerator. _I wish I reached adulthood already. I don't even have enough power to open up this human-made object! _She thought angrily. Her stomach growled, making her glare at the refrigerator even more. Suddenly at that moment, her ears twitched. She recognized this sound – the sound of a door opening. This could either mean one of two things: Minato came back, or someone else did with unknown reasons. She hoped for the former and dashed to the living room.

To her luck, Minato had come home, and in his hands was a small bag. It didn't take her that long to realize what it was – she could smell it. She sat down and slowly swayed all nine of her tails side to side, trying to look cute and neat. Minato smiled and slowly opened the bag. However, Kushina only had so much patience. She jumped up and snatched the bag out of his hands. She dug into the meat messily and quickly – after all, she was starving. A few minutes later when she was done, she heard Minato chuckling.

She turned to glare at him. _What's so funny?_ She thought, narrowing her eyes.

As if he read her thoughts, he said, "I never expected a fox like you to eat so much! I had planned for leftovers, but it seems that you can eat all of it." He chuckled a bit again.

Kushina glared at him again before turning away from him. _Is he making fun of me?_ She thought. Then, she felt his hand ruffle her head lightly. She looked up at him and he smiled back. Minato then walked to the couch and sat down, picking a book from the shelf behind him. Curiosity overcoming her slight anger, Kushina trotted over to the couch and jumped next to him. She tilted her head slightly, not understanding what he was reading.

Minato seemed to notice that she didn't understand. He gestured towards the book. "This is called The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. This was written by my teacher, Jiraiya, who you met yesterday. It's about a shinobi named Naruto, who plans to stop the war and conflict in this world to create peace. It's a really great book."

Kushina tilted her head again. _Stop the war and conflict? Peace? As long as I'm the nine tails, I doubt I'll have peace, _she thought. Still, she sat besides Minato and tried to read the book with him. She really couldn't understand some of its contents, but she didn't really mind. Minato liked this book, so she did her best to read it too.

However, somewhere along the way, Minato started to stroke her fur softly, making her feel sleepy and tired by the second. Giving in to her urges, she laid down and closed her eyes.

* * *

Kushina was forced to wake up as she was suddenly submerged in cold, freezing water. She snapped her eyes open and swam to the surface to breathe. She looked around until she saw Minato laughing on the dry land. She slowly swam towards him, shivering from the freezing water.

When she reached to where Minato was, she glared at him before shaking off water. Kushina then took a moment to analyze her surroundings. She had seemed to be _rudely_ dropped into a large, peaceful lake with tall, beautiful trees behind it.

_A serene place like this would be perfect to rest in, or even possibly fishing,_ Kushina thought. _Why _are _we here, anyway?_

Just as she thought that, she saw a small blob plop into the water in front of her. She jumped slightly; startled that something ruined the lake's serenity. She stared at this "small blob" intensely.

_What is that thing? Is it edible? Harmful? What's it doing in the water? _She thought as she narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, this little blob moved around a bit in the water. She once again was startled by it, but she resumed her posture and started to stare at it intensely again.

A few moments later, the small blob moved around again. Kushina growled at it – after all, she could never be too sure if it was harmful or not. Then, a fish along with the blob came flying out of the water! Kushina stared at it in shock as it landed next to her, the fish flopping on its side.

She turned around and looked at Minato, who was now holding a metal rod of some sort. At the end of it, there was a string that she didn't realize earlier was connected to the blob and the fish, which was now dead because it stopped flopping on the ground.

Minato squatted down and gently removed the fish and put it into a bucket. "I thought it'd be nice for both of us to get some fresh air instead of being cooped up in the house all day, so I thought we could fish together. Why don't you give it a try?" He gestured towards the lake.

The nine tailed vixen skeptically stared at the water. She never really fished before, but she had a general idea of it. She watched her family countless times gracefully swipe their paw through the water, making the fish fly out of the water and onto land, or catching it skillfully with their mouth. Kushina tried to do this before, but she was just too clumsy. Her heart panged a bit at the thought of her family, but she quickly pushed the thought away.

She hesitantly tested the water with her paw before going in. She shivered as she felt the freezing water soak into her fur. Kushina looked around carefully, trying to find a good fish to catch. She imagined that she could never swipe the fish with her paw successfully, so she decided to try to pounce upon one since that seemed the easiest way for her.

Her steady eyes scanned the shallow waters, seeing tiny fish swim up and about. Kushina knew those were too small though to eat. Suddenly, she saw a medium sized fish swimming near her. It wasn't swimming too fast, which meant that it probably hasn't noticed her or deemed her as a threat.

_This is my big chance! I will once and for all catch my very own fish! _She thought eagerly, sneaking up on it slowly. She tried to avoid having her tails touch the water because then it would slow her down a lot.

Once she reached a reasonably good distance away from the fish, she got into position, ready to pounce. She readied her legs, and concentrated on the clueless fish. Then, in slow motion, she leapt into the air towards the fish; her claws sharp and ready.

She slowly descended onto the fish…until she fell head first into the water. She lifted her head out of the water and stood up properly. She looked around until she saw the fish again. The fish had appeared to swim away _right_ before Kushina pounced on it.

_Damn you fish! I almost had you! _She growled and glared at the fish, which was now swimming at a leisurely pace. _Fine then, I'll just catch other fishes._

Kushina, however, seemed to have no luck. No matter how many times she tried to pounce on a fish, they would always swim away right before she pounced on them. Sulking a bit, she went back to Minato, who seemed to have a _lot_ of success in fishing.

His _two_ buckets were full of fish. While he had two buckets full of them, Kushina never caught any. The best she had managed was a simple scratch on a fish before it swam away. She glared at his abundant supply.

Minato chuckled. "I suppose you haven't been taught to fish when you were younger. This fishing rod here makes it easier for humans to fish. I bet if you were human, you'd catch as much as me." He patted her head and went to pick up the two buckets.

She pondered about what he just said for a moment. _I wonder what _would_ happen if I became human. Would people still hunt me? _She shook her head at the thought. _That won't happen. It's best to just live with Minato for now. _She trotted over to Minato's retreating figure before slowing down to his pace when she caught up to him.

With her tails swaying side to side in contentment, Kushina and Minato walked back to his house down a secret path in the forest. After all, they didn't want Konoha to be an in uproar should Kushina get spotted.

* * *

As soon as they both got into the house safely, Kushina snatched a fish from one of the buckets, startling Minato.

"H-Hey!" He called out as she ran towards the kitchen with the fish tucked safely into her mouth. When she reached the kitchen, she skidded to a stop and dropped the fish onto the floor. Kushina didn't waste a second – the moment it hit the floor, she started to devour it ravenously.

She had gotten hungry after trying to catch fish in the lake. However, Minato wouldn't let her eat one as they were walking back. So she settled on eating it the moment they got to his house.

Within minutes, the fish was devoured, although Kushina was still hungry. She slowly stepped over to the entrance of the living room and peeked around cautiously. Minato wasn't in sight, but the buckets of fish weren't either. She narrowed her eyes and slowly headed to Minato's bedroom.

Fortunately for her, his door was open. She peeked into his room and saw that he was reading the book from earlier on his bed. She then spotted it: the fishes. They were right beside his bed.

_Why would he leave it beside his bed? Shouldn't he put it in that freakishly tall object that stores food in his kitchen? _Kushina thought. She knew that fish would rot if left alone for too long. _Is he waiting for me to try and get another one? He's facing the other way though. However, the fact that he simply laid it beside his bed and not storing them into that object in the kitchen means that he's waiting for me to steal one! Grr! I accept your challenge, Minato! _She growled, but not loud enough for Minato to notice.

Kushina crouched down and slowly made her way to the buckets. She stopped once every few steps to make sure he didn't notice. She'd stop and freeze whenever she thought he saw her, but she would start heading towards the fishes again after she makes sure he didn't see her.

Luck, however, didn't seem to be on her side this time – not like it has, really. As she was about to take one of the fish into her mouth, she forgot about her tails for a moment and tripped on one of them. This caused her to fall forward, knocking the buckets down and making a loud crash.

"What was that?" Kushina heard Minato mutter. She froze for a split second before dashing under his bed. Unfortunately, she didn't make it very far. One of her tails was grabbed and she was gently pulled out from under Minato's bed.

_Damn it! I was caught,_ Kushina thought, glaring at Minato.

"Caught you, you sneaky little vixen." He grinned and released her tail. Minato grabbed a fish and threw it towards her direction, which Kushina caught with her mouth clumsily.

She set it on the floor and started to scarf down the fish. After she was done, three more fish were thrown near her. Without hesitating, Kushina ate the fishes quickly. Around the 5th or 6th one, she was full.

"Well you ate quite a bit. Good thing _I_ caught so many." Minato laughed.

_A-Are you making fun of me?! _She growled. At that moment, she felt something _spark_ in her mind, but she didn't pay any attention to it.

Minato's eyes widened as he stared at her in shock. No longer angry, Kushina tilted her head to the side.

_Why is he staring at me like that? Am I bleeding? My wounds should already be better. Better safe than sorry though. _Kushina turned her head to look at her leg, which was perfectly fine. Kushina wasn't bleeding anywhere, so she was confused as to why he was looking at her that way.

"Did you just…..talk?" Minato pointed a finger at her. Now _she_ was the one who looked at him with shock.

_Me? Talk? I may be the nine tails, but I certainly cannot talk. Has he gone insane? _Kushina narrowed her eyes at him.

"You did it again. You said that you couldn't talk, but you can think." Minato told her. Her eyes widened.

_D-Did he read my mind? He's crazy! _Kushina shook her head.

"Hey, I'm not crazy."

_He really _is_ reading my mind! Wait, how come he didn't read my mind before? Hey Minato, if you're really reading my mind, then how come you weren't doing it before? _Kushina stared at him curiously.

Minato shook his head. "I didn't read your mind. I didn't do anything to read it. Considering you're the nine tails, and you're not quite into adulthood, you're probably developing your powers, and this is one of them. You're just probably projecting your thoughts into me unknowingly."

_….Oh. I didn't think of it that way. Do you think I'd be able to do this with other people too? _Kushina's eyes lit up while her tails were swaying side to side. She was delighted to find out that she was now developing her powers; meaning, she's getting closer to adulthood. That also meant more people would be after her, but she didn't care about that right now.

"Maybe. You just got it right now, so you should be only able to do it with me so far. Well then, since you're now able to 'talk' with me, why don't we introduce ourselves properly? I'm Minato Namikaze, and you are…?" He trailed off, letting her finish it.

_….Kushina. Kushina Uzumaki._

"Kushina…what a lovely name. I look forward to being with you, Kushina."


End file.
